Our Team

Beijing

Sameh El-Shahat – President

China and the media have always been important factors in the El-Shahat household. Both Sameh’s parents were distinguished TV and radio personalities in Egypt, Middle East and Europe. Sameh’s father encounters with Premier Zhou Enlai had a profound impact on his upbringing. Training as an engineer at Cambridge helped Sameh see the importance of organising seemingly unrelated tools to achieve grand projects. Then after a long career in banking, Sameh branched out into design and luxury. The emphasis was on telling stories and creating brands that could create the most intimate links with people. To this end, he created the luxury brand Tavola Rasa, turning painstakingly made furniture pieces into individuals telling their own stories. It was this exercise in brand creation that impressed upon him the importance of a narrative based on reality and reaching out to people at a very emotional level with a real life-changing message. That was the essence of a brand. Together with his sister Samah, they set up China-i in 2007 to help Chinese brands tell their stories to the people of the world. That is what China-i does and we are very lucky to do something that we love. Every day he and his colleagues help tell one of the most amazing stories the world will ever hear. He likes to run and practice Chinese characters.

Dr Samah El-Shahat – Vice President

Samah is a rare media personality because she also has a PhD in development economics. That means that she has a unique angle on telling the story of China, the first global superpower that is also a developing country. Samah has always believed that those who are powerless should have a voice on the world stage and she has dedicated her life to it. She focused her TV career on that purpose, as chief anchor of “People and Power” and “Counting the Cost” investigative programs on Aljazeera English where she rose to fame and gained a reputation as a fearsome interviewer and seeker of the truth (ask John Bolton, ex US ambassador to the UN, to name but one!). Samah is in charge of our company’s unique stakeholder engagement effort across the world. Whether in Asia, Africa, Europe, or the Americas, our teams help strengthen bonds between Chinese companies and local communities. Samah believes that there is a role for companies to play in developing their communities in a sustainable way which remains untapped. That’s where her unique combination of communication and economics allows her to lead her teams to create and facilitate sustainable strategic development-oriented solutions that underpin our clients’ commitments to their host communities and countries. She makes sure our clients’ brands have A SOCIAL LICENSE! Samah has long conversations with Lucky for ideas and inspiration. Lucky is a chocolate Labrador with wisdom beyond his years!

Wei Songzhao – Senior Relationship Manager

She joined China-I in its early years in China so she is definitely a founder member. Before that she worked for Future Step, a Korn/Ferry Company, the renowned leading global head hunting agency working her way to become Human Resource Manager responsible for
HR management of Future Step in China. Dealing with HR as made her appreciate that people, and their values are the most important factors of any company, let alone one that is dedicated to powerful communication like China-i. And that is why she is such a great communicator herself. She received her Master’s degree in HR from the UK and entered China-I as PA to the President and then she found herself enjoying interacting with people of all levels. This special gift allowed her to rise to being the Senior Relationship Manager, looking after the needs of our clients who are really our extended family. Her friends and family know her as SongSong. As for her hobbies, she likes swimming and having an answer for everything.

Liu Hong – Relationship Manager

Prior to joining China-i, he worked as the Key Account Manager for some of China’s biggest consumer and transportation companies. Since joining China-i he has been developing his skills in cooperate communications, issues management, social media, and project management for clients. Now he is the project manager for large technical projects, responsible for overseeing the multiple aspects of such large endeavours, such as communications, managing the team’s performance of project tasks, risk management, securing acceptance and approval of deliverables by the client and etc. He always plays an important role in ensuring a high level of client satisfaction and maintaining good relationship.
He is passionate about his work and puts his project management expertise to good use for our clients. His attention to details and desire to maximise meaningful connections allows him to have effective management of complex projects, with diverse stakeholders and etc.

Hong Tao – Relationship Manager

Hong Tao has been working in marketing and communication sector for 8 years. He developed his career as a relationship manager by helping his clients communicate more effectively and powerfully through innovative ideas, strategies and tools. He has been involved in several big projects of the company, that is with the top ministries of the government, SOEs as well as private companies. He has a passion for new ideas, and fresh trends. His hometown is located in the beautiful countryside around Hangzhou. He has lived and worked in Shanghai for 7 years, now he lives in Beijing. He’s particularly fond of learning different languages and cultures.

Meng Yan – Relationship Manager

Meng Yan was born in Beijing, where she lived for most of her life, benefiting from a warm and supporting family, and the city which provided her with an education and opportunities for personal growth. Since her earliest school days she has been interested in the pursuit of knowledge and truth, a search which was inspired by her parents. This has stayed with her into adult life and she now find herself realizing the importance and beauty of such ideas and principles, especially in communicating ideas that can profoundly influence people. This is the approach she brings to her work.
She worked in the luxury sector for many years communicating ideas and values from China to Europe. Meng Yan loves to be with unique and fun people, two attributes which perfectly describe our clientele. “Be humble and experience the world”, that’s her motto! She loves travelling and seeing new things and has a serious artistic side.

Mo Yanna – Executive Assistant

Born and bred in Beijing, Mo is you might an individual. Takes her individuality really seriously. If you meet her, you’ll know what we mean. Straight away… She likes alternative cultures, subcultures and special objects. She is very tuned into 90s and 80s generation and is our expert on the subject. Ever since she was a kid, she liked to walk her own path. She plays basketball in a boys’ team, loves IT and computers, and fashion. She’s got a good nose for fashionable and extraordinary things, like her extraordinary clothes, for example. Eating, drinking, and playing differently is her style. As executive assistant, she is part of our design group.

Kevin Kerrigan, Researcher

London

Quentin Newark, Head of Design and Communications

Mark Dixon, Head of M & A

Geraldine Manx, Managing Director

Matthew Hannah, Designer

Verona

Lisa di Luca, Office Manager

Cairo

Mohamed Awad Kila, Head of Egypt Office

Hanna Morkos, Relationship

Myanmar

Mr Thant Aung

Mr Than Zin Tun

Mr Craig Paterson

In Africa they have a proverb which says that ‘If you want to go fast, go alone but If you want to go far, go together.’ Craig has always had a vision of contributing to significant investment-linked social change and sought to contribute to China-I that share this vision.
Completing university with a BSc in Biomedical Science, he soon discovered that working with people rather than test tubes was better aligned with his personality. In pursuing further studies at Wits Business School, he reignited a love affair with the subject of development and particularly achieving developmental objectives through SME development.
He has gone on to work in various CSR and SME development roles in South Africa and in 2015 was given the amazing opportunity to join China-I working in Myanmar.
Working with Chinese clients, he has again been reminded of that African proverb and has seen incredible potential to “go far”, by walking and working together to achieve social objectives.